Train of the Week

The Pacer is one of the most interesting passenger railroad equipment I have been on. Technical she’s called a railbus, since she’s built by ex-British Rail Engineering Limited in conjunction with bus companies (Layland and Walt Alexander), and she’s got bus parts and has 4 wheels per car (essentially, the Pacer was a bus mounted on the frame of a freight car). The ride on the Pacer wasn’t the greatest, bouncy and noisy. However, she did ease the pressure on the ex-British Railways on cut running costs for rural and suburban railroad lines in the UK in the mid-1980s. Five variants of the Pacer have been built over the years, Class 140 to 144. I had spent my time on these funny little railbuses on board of the Class 142 and 144 operated by Northern Rail. Prototype Pacer Northern Rail Class 142 Northern Class 144, I've been on this exact service to Doncaster from Sheffield

The Class 158 Express Sprinter is a nice little Diesel Multiple Unit I have come to know quite well during my trip in England. She's neither a looker or very fast, but she sure works hard and is very visible from many places in the UK. The Class 158 was truly British and was built in Derby during some of the last British Rail Engineering Limited days. She was built as a 2 or 3-car DMU although today all of them have been converted to 2-car sets or into Class 159. Hydraulic transmissions are used on each car of the 158 to deliver 350 (later 400) horsepower from the diesel engines to 2 of the 4 total axles per car. The 158 is also a lightweight built with welded aluminum construction and weighs only 84,000 lbs. per car. After privatization of British Rail, a considerable number of TOCs (Train Operating Companies) still operate 170 sets of Class 158 today. East Midland Trains Class 158 Interior of the First Great Western 158 During my rail journey in England, it was the ...

I’m back from England and I’ve brought some good (or so I hope) pictures! And of course the highlight of my trip was Railfest 2012 , hosted by National Railway Museum in York. It was an awesome event to celebrate trains and railroading. At the center of attention on opening day, June 2, was the renaming ceremony of locomotive 91110 , Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The Brits definitely take their trains seriously. At the ceremony, not only did a formation of Lancaster, Hurricane, and Spitfire fly by, a priest was also present to say a prayer for the 91110 and gave her blessing of water. Anyway, a picture says a thousand words; I shall leave you to the photos I’ve taken at this wonderful event the NRM has put together.

Here's the second, or most recent, video. I filmed it from a range road near the Alberta town of Indus. It features possibly the fastest CP train (and it was of course a 110) I have ever seen in real life.

Hello everyone. Well, title says all. I'll be riding the rails again for just a little over a week. So, for this week and the next, I'll post two recent train clips I filmed. Hope you like them. Here comes the first clip of the two, CP Train 110 in the Rocky Mountains east of Field, BC.